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IowaBio meets Charles City biotech

  • Members of an Iowa Biotechnology Association tour get off buses Thursday morning for a tour of Zoetis in Charles City. Press photo by Bob Steenson

  • Members of an Iowa Biotechnology Association tour of Zoetis in Charles City Thursday look at some of the equipment on display in a meeting area. Press photo by Bob Steenson

  • IowaBio Executive Director Joe Hrdlicka, center with the microphone, explains the morning's agenda to members of an Iowa Biotechnology Association tour at Zoetis in Charles City. Press photo by Bob Steenson

  • Pam Stoops, site leader at the Charles City Zoetis plant, welcomes members of the Iowa Biotechnology Association and others on a tour. Press photo by Bob Steenson

  • Amanda McCarty of Zoetis gives a demonstration of egg candling during an Iowa Biotechnology Association tour Thursday morning. The company uses millions of eggs each year to produce its animal vaccines. Press photo by Bob Steenson

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com 

Seven-and-a-half million to 8 million eggs used each year. Thirty-five billion vaccine doses produced. Those are a couple of the figures from a tour of Zoetis in Charles City Thursday.

About 50 members of the Iowa Biotechnology Association, public officials and educators spent part of the week in the Charles City area as part of the state association’s annual biotech tour.

Wednesday afternoon was spent in Osage on a tour of Valent Biosciences. After a night in Charles City, the group loaded onto two charter buses for a short trip to Zoetis Thursday morning.

Joe Hrdlicka, executive director of the association also known as IowaBio, said the group has been conducting the annual tours for a number of years as an opportunity to introduce members to other biotechnology companies in parts of the state other than near Des Moines.

Participants come from around the state and farther.

Ted Westendorf, with Evoqua Water Technologies from St. Louis, said the trip had been very informative.

“The biopharm industry is just a really big part of our business,” he said. Evoqua develops industrial and municipal water treatment facilities.

“We do have some equipment in this plant we installed years ago, but I wanted to get a little bit more information about what they did and where they are going in the future,” Westendorf said.

The tour attracted representatives from Iowa State University and the University of Iowa, economic development officials as well as local and state politicians and representatives of the state’s members of Congress.

The group gathered at Zoetis for a look at some of the equipment the company uses in manufacturing animal vaccines; received a presentation on the company and its products by company staff, including new site leader Pam Stoops; and took a bus tour around the company’s facilities; before ending the trip with a lunch at the county fairgrounds.

The Charles City Zoetis facility covers 600,000 square feet and is located on 256 acres. There are more than 400 employees, and the site produces the most vaccine doses of all Zoetis’ 25 manufacturing sites worldwide.

Many of the company’s vaccines are grown in or use products from chicken eggs — hence the 7.5 million to 8 million eggs used per year. Vaccines produced in Charles City are used for poultry, swine, horses and dogs.

Zoetis is the world leader in animal health medicines, vaccines, diagnostic products, genetic tests, biodevices and technical services, according to information given out on the tour.

 

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